Giant bistable lateral shift owing to surface-plasmon excitation in Kretschmann configuration with a Kerr nonlinear dielectric

We investigate the reflection of a TM-polarized light beam from a Kretschmann configuration with a Kerr nonlinear dielectric. It is found that there exists a hysteretic response between the lateral shift of the reflected beam and the intensity of the incident beam. In contrast to the lower switch threshold, the higher switch threshold of optical bistability is more sensitive to the variations of the angle of incidence and the thickness of metal film. It is also found that the peak value of the lateral shift is strongly dependent on the thickness of metal film. (C) 2008 Optical Society of America.